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Priscilla: [00:00:12] Hello and thank you for joining us. My name is Priscilla Dickinson, journalist at Mortgage Professional Australia. Today, I am excited to introduce you to Jason Back, founder and director of Broker Essentials. Broker Essentials was awarded the Dye & Durham Best Industry Service Award and the 2022 Australian Mortgage Awards. For those of you who haven't met Jason, he has 32 years experience and as the country's leading mortgage broker, mentor and coach. Essentially, Jason helps brokers to grow their business through a practical and targeted program suitable for both brokers and their admin staff. Jason, congratulations on winning the award for best industry service. And welcome. 

Jason: [00:01:01] Priscilla, thank you so much. It's an absolute honor and it's lovely to be here. 

Priscilla: [00:01:06] Thanks, Jason. Could you start by telling us what makes Broker Essentials Training and Development program number one? 

Jason: [00:01:14] So it's a great question. Over the last the last ten years, I've been working in the broking industry, and for the last 30 years I've been working in the finance industry. We've taken a very practical and pragmatic approach to helping brokers build, grow and scale their businesses. I think I bring a very unique set of skills with over 30 years of experience also running one of Australia's largest independent brokerages for seven years. It gives me a fairly unique perspective around what works and more importantly, what doesn't work in the broking market, and also helps brokers understand that everyone's a little bit different. So we take a very personalized view and the program that I run, I actually don't outsource any of the coaching. I actually do it all myself. So when the clients seek support and guidance, they get me. 

Priscilla: [00:01:58] And why should brokers consider using a coaching and mentoring service? 

Jason: [00:02:03] Priscilla, one of the challenges with the mortgage banking industry is that we're not necessarily all born naturally into running small businesses. So any time that we can get guidance and support or help, I'd strongly recommend it. The best people in the world, in all their different industries, whether that be sport or music or politics, generally will seek support and guidance. And we strongly recommend that all small business owners do the same. And there's a really fascinating group of providers in the market now that are all looking to effectively just go out there and help people be their best. So we certainly recommend people seek support. Mortgage broker, business coaches and business coaches in general will certainly help brokers narrow down their focus around improving their performance, looking at things like productivity growing and scaling their business, staying in touch with changes in the industry, as well as enhancing their personal and professional development. 

Priscilla: [00:02:57] Okay. Excellent. Thank you. I understand you have a philosophy around coaching and mentoring, which is built around client process measure. Could you explain a little bit about that process? 

Jason: [00:03:09] The relatively, the relative nature of running a business means that there's always a million different things that business owners can be focused on. What we try and do is we try and narrow that focus down to three core areas around process, client and measure. So in reality, the client is attracting clients lead generation, how they bring clients into the business conversion. Yes, we are in a sales industry and brokers do need to be able to convert clients to their services and also the retention. And we need to make sure that we're keeping our clients happy and retain them. From a process perspective, we want to be utilizing the best technologies available in our field to keep up to date with what's happening, not just in our market but around the world. So we want best use of technology process for everything that we do, and we also want to operationalize our business, whether that be recruitment to HR, to culture. And the last one there. One measure which is really about performance, is taking into account things like productivity as well as profitability, something we don't probably talk enough about in this industry, as well as having a really clear exit plan for brokers as they join the industry, create these wonderful businesses, and then look at how in due course that one day when they exit the business that they've got an asset that they can either sell or they can morph into something a little bit different, where they may stay in the business, but their role will actually change. So we take them on a full end to end journey. 

Priscilla: [00:04:25] And just finally, is there a specific tool or area of knowledge or personal attribute that you think has really led to broker success over 2022? 

Jason: [00:04:35] 2022 had its own bunch of challenges in 2023, will deliver a new raft of opportunities and challenges. Last year we saw brokers really struggling with the challenge of capacity, the ability to effectively serve all the clients and their needs in a timely manner. That gave the client a great experience, but also in a changing environment where bank policy and rates and the like were changing as well. So last year, the ability to handle capacity, but this year the ability to go out and actually look at activities. So sales, marketing and actually becoming a bit more of a brand. So the tool that we sort of look at when it comes to what's working really well for brokers last year and also this year is really having a curious mind and being agile with their thinking. It's very difficult for brokers not to sort of put their head down and bum up and just get caught in the day to day grind. But if we really think about what's going to make broker successful over the next 12 months, it's there are really, their ability to adapt and morph in a changing environment to make sure that they understand what's important to their clients, but more importantly, they also understand what's important to them as business owners as well. Because again, it's a really a changing and adaptive market at the moment. 

Priscilla: [00:05:45] Jason, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. And thank you to all of our viewers. We look forward to talking to you again soon.